• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

NVIDIA Extends DirectX Raytracing (DXR) Support to Many GeForce GTX GPUs

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
46,274 (7.69/day)
Location
Hyderabad, India
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
NVIDIA today announced that it is extending DXR (DirectX Raytracing) support to several GeForce GTX graphics models beyond its GeForce RTX series. These include the GTX 1660 Ti, GTX 1660, GTX 1080 Ti, GTX 1080, GTX 1070 Ti, GTX 1070, and GTX 1060 6 GB. The GTX 1060 3 GB and lower "Pascal" models don't support DXR, nor do older generations of NVIDIA GPUs. NVIDIA has implemented real-time raytracing on GPUs without specialized components such as RT cores or tensor cores, by essentially implementing the rendering path through shaders, in this case, CUDA cores. DXR support will be added through a new GeForce graphics driver later today.

The GPU's CUDA cores now have to calculate BVR, intersection, reflection, and refraction. The GTX 16-series chips have an edge over "Pascal" despite lacking RT cores, as the "Turing" CUDA cores support concurrent INT and FP execution, allowing more work to be done per clock. NVIDIA in a detailed presentation listed out the kinds of real-time ray-tracing effects available by the DXR API, namely reflections, shadows, advanced reflections and shadows, ambient occlusion, global illumination (unbaked), and combinations of these. The company put out detailed performance numbers for a selection of GTX 10-series and GTX 16-series GPUs, and compared them to RTX 20-series SKUs that have specialized hardware for DXR.



Update: Article updated with additional test data from NVIDIA.

According to NVIDIA's numbers, GPUs without RTX are significantly slower than the RTX 20-series. No surprises here. But at 1440p, the resolution NVIDIA chose for these tests, you would need at least a GTX 1080 or GTX 1080 Ti for playable frame-rates (above 30 fps). This is especially true in case of Battlefield V, in which only the GTX 1080 Ti manages 30 fps. The gap between the GTX 1080 Ti and GTX 1080 is vast, with the latter serving up only 25 fps. The GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 6 GB spit out really fast Powerpoint presentations, at under 20 fps.



It's important to note here, that NVIDIA tested at the highest DXR settings for Battlefield V, and lowering the DXR Reflections quality could improve frame-rates, although we remain skeptical about the slower SKUs such as GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 6 GB. The story repeats with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which uses DXR shadows, albeit the frame-rates are marginally higher than Battlefield V. You still need a GTX 1080 Ti for 34 fps.



Atomic Heart uses Advanced Reflections (reflections of reflections, and non-planar reflective surfaces). Unfortunately, no GeForce GTX card manages performance over 15.4 fps. The story repeats with 3DMark Port Royal, which uses both Advanced Reflections and DXR Shadows. Single-digit frame-rates for all GTX cards. The performance is better with Justice tech-demo, although far-from playable, as only the GTX 1080 and GTX 1080 Ti manage over 20 fps. Advanced Reflections and AO, in case of the Star Wars RTX tech-demo, is another torture for these GPUs - single-digit frame-rates all over. Global Illumination with Metro Exodus is another slog for these chips.



Overall, NVIDIA has managed to script the perfect advertisement for the RTX 20-series. Real-time ray-tracing on compute shaders is horrendously slow, and it pays to have specialized hardware such as RT cores for them, while tensor cores accelerate DLSS to improve performance even further.



It remains to be seen if AMD takes a swing at DXR on GCN stream processors any time soon. The company has already had a technical effort underway for years under Radeon Rays, and is reportedly working on DXR.

Update:
NVIDIA posted its test data for 4K and 1080p in addition to 1440p, and medium-thru-low settings of DXR. Their entire test data is posted below.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 

TheLostSwede

News Editor
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Messages
15,996 (2.26/day)
Location
Sweden
System Name Overlord Mk MLI
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master
Cooling Noctua NH-D15 SE with offsets
Memory 32GB Team T-Create Expert DDR5 6000 MHz @ CL30-34-34-68
Video Card(s) Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom GS
Storage 1TB Solidigm P44 Pro, 2 TB Corsair MP600 Pro, 2TB Kingston KC3000
Display(s) Acer XV272K LVbmiipruzx 4K@160Hz
Case Fractal Design Torrent Compact
Audio Device(s) Corsair Virtuoso SE
Power Supply be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W
Mouse Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard Corsair K70 Max
Software Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores https://valid.x86.fr/5za05v
Great, so I can chose between playable frame rate or DXR...
 
Joined
Jun 16, 2009
Messages
272 (0.05/day)
Processor Intel Core i7 2500K @ 5GHz 1.4v
Motherboard Asrock Z77E-ITX
Cooling Corsair H60 with 2 x 120mm push/pull exhaust, 140mm intake
Memory 8GB Samsung 30nm DDR3 1600 @ 2133 9-10-10-20-1t 1.45v
Video Card(s) Asus Geforce 480 GTX w/low idle voltage BIOS
Storage 128GB Plextor M3P SSD, 3 x 2TB Hitachi 5400rpm in RAID0
Display(s) 2x eMachines 22" 1080p LCDs
Case Lian Li Q08A Mini-ITX
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply Corsair AX750 80Plus Gold
Software Windows 7 Ultimate x64
The RTX line really must not be selling as well as Nv would like.
 
Joined
Jan 24, 2011
Messages
21 (0.00/day)
Location
Poland
System Name Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Processor Intel Core i5-430M @ 2.27GHz
Motherboard emE730G
Cooling BOX
Memory 2x Kingstone 2GB 1066 MHz DDR3
Video Card(s) ATi Mobility Radeon HD5470 512MB GDDR3
Storage WD WD3200BPVT 320GB
Display(s) emachines PnP LED
Case emachines E730G
Audio Device(s) Realtek
Power Supply None
Quake 2 with RTX mod work now on GTX 10xx?
 

TheLostSwede

News Editor
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Messages
15,996 (2.26/day)
Location
Sweden
System Name Overlord Mk MLI
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master
Cooling Noctua NH-D15 SE with offsets
Memory 32GB Team T-Create Expert DDR5 6000 MHz @ CL30-34-34-68
Video Card(s) Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom GS
Storage 1TB Solidigm P44 Pro, 2 TB Corsair MP600 Pro, 2TB Kingston KC3000
Display(s) Acer XV272K LVbmiipruzx 4K@160Hz
Case Fractal Design Torrent Compact
Audio Device(s) Corsair Virtuoso SE
Power Supply be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W
Mouse Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard Corsair K70 Max
Software Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores https://valid.x86.fr/5za05v
Joined
Feb 3, 2017
Messages
3,475 (1.33/day)
Processor R5 5600X
Motherboard ASUS ROG STRIX B550-I GAMING
Cooling Alpenföhn Black Ridge
Memory 2*16GB DDR4-2666 VLP @3800
Video Card(s) EVGA Geforce RTX 3080 XC3
Storage 1TB Samsung 970 Pro, 2TB Intel 660p
Display(s) ASUS PG279Q, Eizo EV2736W
Case Dan Cases A4-SFX
Power Supply Corsair SF600
Mouse Corsair Ironclaw Wireless RGB
Keyboard Corsair K60
VR HMD HTC Vive
Yeah, at 10fps...
Did you try it?
Honest question.

Edit:
The new set of drivers has DXR implementation, that is DirectX 12.
I really do not know if Nvidia actually made the Vulkan stuff Q2VKRT uses to work on non-RTX hardware. Probably not as Vulkan's extensions should be low-level enough.
 
Joined
Jun 15, 2016
Messages
1,042 (0.37/day)
Location
Pristina
System Name My PC
Processor 4670K@4.4GHz
Motherboard Gryphon Z87
Cooling CM 212
Memory 2x8GB+2x4GB @2400GHz
Video Card(s) XFX Radeon RX 580 GTS Black Edition 1425MHz OC+, 8GB
Storage Intel 530 SSD 480GB + Intel 510 SSD 120GB + 2x500GB hdd raid 1
Display(s) HP envy 32 1440p
Case CM Mastercase 5
Audio Device(s) Sbz ZXR
Power Supply Antec 620W
Mouse G502
Keyboard G910
Software Win 10 pro
Is it possible to use 2 cards one for normal operations and other as dedicated RTX using bridge cable or just faster PCI-e 3.0 or that would add too much latency?
 
Joined
Jan 24, 2011
Messages
21 (0.00/day)
Location
Poland
System Name Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Processor Intel Core i5-430M @ 2.27GHz
Motherboard emE730G
Cooling BOX
Memory 2x Kingstone 2GB 1066 MHz DDR3
Video Card(s) ATi Mobility Radeon HD5470 512MB GDDR3
Storage WD WD3200BPVT 320GB
Display(s) emachines PnP LED
Case emachines E730G
Audio Device(s) Realtek
Power Supply None
Joined
Oct 18, 2013
Messages
5,413 (1.42/day)
Location
Everywhere all the time all at once
System Name The Little One
Processor i5-11320H @4.4GHZ
Motherboard AZW SEI
Cooling Fan w/heat pipes + side & rear vents
Memory 64GB Crucial DDR4-3200 (2x 32GB)
Video Card(s) Iris XE
Storage WD Black SN850X 4TB m.2, Seagate 2TB SSD + SN850 4TB x2 in an external enclosure
Display(s) 2x Samsung 43" & 2x 32"
Case Practically identical to a mac mini, just purrtier in slate blue, & with 3x usb ports on the front !
Audio Device(s) Yamaha ATS-1060 Bluetooth Soundbar & Subwoofer
Power Supply 65w brick
Mouse Logitech MX Master 2
Keyboard Logitech G613 mechanical wireless
Software Windows 10 pro 64 bit, with all the unnecessary background shitzu turned OFF !
Benchmark Scores PDQ
As long as we can play Crysis on it at 641.379K FPS, it don't really matter what card we use, right ? :)
 
Joined
Apr 19, 2011
Messages
2,198 (0.46/day)
Location
So. Cal.
MARCH this way.... A··Bout-Face! A·Bout Face·.jpg
 
Joined
Mar 10, 2014
Messages
1,793 (0.49/day)
Actually 30FPS on gtx1080ti BFV DXR ulta at 1440p does not sound even bad. @W1zzard are you going to test these drivers?
 

W1zzard

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
26,956 (3.71/day)
Processor Ryzen 7 5700X
Memory 48 GB
Video Card(s) RTX 4080
Storage 2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe
Display(s) 30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024
Software Windows 10 64-bit
@W1zzard are you going to test these drivers?
i'm not sure yet, i got lots of other things to test and nvidia has provided numbers anyway. it'll also be a ton of work to test all this.

i'm thinking about adding a rtx section with just one game (metro?) to future gpu reviews
 

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
26,259 (4.65/day)
Location
IA, USA
System Name BY-2021
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (65w eco profile)
Motherboard MSI B550 Gaming Plus
Cooling Scythe Mugen (rev 5)
Memory 2 x Kingston HyperX DDR4-3200 32 GiB
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
Storage Samsung 980 Pro, Seagate Exos X20 TB 7200 RPM
Display(s) Nixeus NX-EDG274K (3840x2160@144 DP) + Samsung SyncMaster 906BW (1440x900@60 HDMI-DVI)
Case Coolermaster HAF 932 w/ USB 3.0 5.25" bay + USB 3.2 (A+C) 3.5" bay
Audio Device(s) Realtek ALC1150, Micca OriGen+
Power Supply Enermax Platimax 850w
Mouse Nixeus REVEL-X
Keyboard Tesoro Excalibur
Software Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Benchmark Scores Faster than the tortoise; slower than the hare.
The RTX line really must not be selling as well as Nv would like.
More like developer interest has been...nonexistent...and they're hoping expanding support will spur more developer interest. I think developers seeing these numbers will laugh and walk away.
 

rtwjunkie

PC Gaming Enthusiast
Supporter
Joined
Jul 25, 2008
Messages
13,909 (2.43/day)
Location
Louisiana -Laissez les bons temps rouler!
System Name Bayou Phantom
Processor Core i7-8700k 4.4Ghz @ 1.18v
Motherboard ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 6
Cooling All air: 2x140mm Fractal exhaust; 3x 140mm Cougar Intake; Enermax T40F Black CPU cooler
Memory 2x 16GB Mushkin Redline DDR-4 3200
Video Card(s) EVGA RTX 2080 Ti Xc
Storage 1x 500 MX500 SSD; 2x 6TB WD Black; 1x 4TB WD Black; 1x400GB VelRptr; 1x 4TB WD Blue storage (eSATA)
Display(s) HP 27q 27" IPS @ 2560 x 1440
Case Fractal Design Define R4 Black w/Titanium front -windowed
Audio Device(s) Soundblaster Z
Power Supply Seasonic X-850
Mouse Coolermaster Sentinel III (large palm grip!)
Keyboard Logitech G610 Orion mechanical (Cherry Brown switches)
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (Start10 & Fences 3.0 installed)
MARCH this way.... A··Bout-Face!View attachment 120791
It’s not an about face. It’s a clever move by Nvidia to show that the top Pascal card can only do RTX barely, at a playable FPS.

It’s meant to convince the hesitant people to get RTX cards after they see what their Pascal’s cannot or can only barely do.
 
Joined
Mar 10, 2014
Messages
1,793 (0.49/day)
i'm not sure yet, i got lots of other things to test and nvidia has provided numbers anyway. it'll also be a ton of work to test all this.

i'm thinking about adding a rtx section with just one game (metro?) to future gpu reviews

Well maybe some short test with only gtx1080ti and maybe with 1660ti, if they can't run it no other old card or non RT core card from nvidia can(excluding TitanV of course). Nvidia numbers are only at 1440p I'm quite interested to see if DXR can be at least ran at decent fps at the lower resolution.
 
Joined
Jun 28, 2018
Messages
299 (0.14/day)
I think this move was made with total intention!

Now that people are going to see the shitty work the GTX cards do with Ray Tracing, they start to think the RTX cards are really good after all ...
 
Joined
Nov 18, 2010
Messages
7,106 (1.46/day)
Location
Rīga, Latvia
System Name HELLSTAR
Processor AMD RYZEN 9 5950X
Motherboard ASUS Strix X570-E
Cooling 2x 360 + 280 rads. 3x Gentle Typhoons, 3x Phanteks T30, 2x TT T140 . EK-Quantum Momentum Monoblock.
Memory 4x8GB G.SKILL Trident Z RGB F4-4133C19D-16GTZR 14-16-12-30-44
Video Card(s) Sapphire Pulse RX 7900XTX + under waterblock.
Storage Optane 900P[W11] + WD BLACK SN850X 4TB + 750 EVO 500GB + 1TB 980PRO[FEDORA]
Display(s) Philips PHL BDM3270 + Acer XV242Y
Case Lian Li O11 Dynamic EVO
Audio Device(s) Sound Blaster ZxR
Power Supply Fractal Design Newton R3 1000W
Mouse Razer Basilisk
Keyboard Razer BlackWidow V3 - Yellow Switch
Software FEDORA 39 / Windows 11 insider
Joined
Mar 10, 2014
Messages
1,793 (0.49/day)
Did you try it?
Honest question.

Edit:
The new set of drivers has DXR implementation, that is DirectX 12.
I really do not know if Nvidia actually made the Vulkan stuff Q2VKRT uses to work on non-RTX hardware. Probably not as Vulkan's extensions should be low-level enough.

Well according to Phoronix, nvidia indeed added Pascal RT support on Vulkan too.
 
Joined
Dec 22, 2011
Messages
3,890 (0.87/day)
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Motherboard MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK
Cooling AMD Wraith Prism
Memory Team Group Dark Pro 8Pack Edition 3600Mhz CL16
Video Card(s) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 FE
Storage Kingston A2000 1TB + Seagate HDD workhorse
Display(s) Samsung 50" QN94A Neo QLED
Case Antec 1200
Power Supply Seasonic Focus GX-850
Mouse Razer Deathadder Chroma
Keyboard Logitech UltraX
Software Windows 11
Joined
Feb 15, 2019
Messages
1,525 (0.82/day)
System Name Personal Gaming Rig
Processor Ryzen 7800X3D
Motherboard MSI X670E Carbon
Cooling MO-RA 3 420
Memory 32GB 6000MHz
Video Card(s) RTX 4090 ICHILL FROSTBITE ULTRA
Storage 4x 2TB Nvme
Display(s) Samsung G8 OLED
Case Silverstone FT04
Remember there are less than a handful of games supports ray tracing for 7 months since release.
PhysX did better.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2013
Messages
6,728 (1.68/day)
It’s not an about face. It’s a clever move by Nvidia to show that the top Pascal card can only do RTX barely, at a playable FPS.

It’s meant to convince the hesitant people to get RTX cards after they see what their Pascal’s cannot or can only barely do.
Oh cool I wonder if they're gonna market this to the die hard RTRT fans, presumably with hundreds of games to follow o_O
 
Joined
Dec 26, 2016
Messages
281 (0.11/day)
Processor Ryzen 3900x
Motherboard B550M Steel Legend
Cooling XPX (custom loop)
Memory 32GB 3200MHz cl16
Video Card(s) 3080 with Bykski block (custom loop)
Storage 980 Pro
Case Fractal 804
Power Supply Focus Plus Gold 750FX
Mouse G603
Keyboard G610 brown
Software yes, lots!
Wow, now we got about 10 GPUs that do RT but only three games, that support it...
 
Joined
Jun 16, 2016
Messages
409 (0.14/day)
System Name Baxter
Processor Intel i7-5775C @ 4.2 GHz 1.35 V
Motherboard ASRock Z97-E ITX/AC
Cooling Scythe Big Shuriken 3 with Noctua NF-A12 fan
Memory 16 GB 2400 MHz CL11 HyperX Savage DDR3
Video Card(s) EVGA RTX 2070 Super Black @ 1950 MHz
Storage 1 TB Sabrent Rocket 2242 NVMe SSD (boot), 500 GB Samsung 850 EVO, and 4TB Toshiba X300 7200 RPM HDD
Display(s) Vizio P65-F1 4KTV (4k60 with HDR or 1080p120)
Case Raijintek Ophion
Audio Device(s) HDMI PCM 5.1, Vizio 5.1 surround sound
Power Supply Corsair SF600 Platinum 600 W SFX PSU
Mouse Logitech MX Master 2S
Keyboard Logitech G613 and Microsoft Media Keyboard
I already struggle to play my games at 4k with a 1080. I don't think fancy raytracing without the specialized cores is going to be a better experience at 1080p than my medium-to-ultra settings mix to get to 1440p+. I'm always up for being proven wrong, though. It will be fun to play with at least.

This may be the first time ever that Nvidia did something nice for us last-gen card owners. Just goes to show that their RTX push isn't going as smoothly as they wanted. Maybe it's to give us a taste of the good stuff so we jones for more and convince ourselves to buy up.
 
Joined
Sep 24, 2018
Messages
14 (0.01/day)
metro is a slideshow on my 1070@1080p 18-20fps dxr eats up 50+ fps and i still cant tell whats being traced lol

This wont make a 10 series owner run out and get a 20 series.
 
Top